Indoor track: Weston is state Class S runner-up

Weston High’’s Emily Savage not only won the pole vault at the state Class S girls indoor track finals, her height of 12 feet, seven inches set a new state and school record and helped Weston finish as runner-up at the meet.—Jeff Savage photo

The Weston High girls indoor track team knew that it would have to have a nearly perfect night to upset Bloomfield in the state Class S championships last week.

Nonetheless, the Trojan girls put up a determined fight throughout the night and ended up in second place as a team with 67 points, 11 points repeat champ Bloomfield and 25 points clear of third place finisher Old Saybrook on Thursday, Feb. 14, at Hillhouse High School.

“In a field of 26 teams from around the state, second place is still a tremendous achievement,” Weston head coach Matt Medve said.

From the first race, however, perfection proved elusive. In the 4×200 meter relay, Weston’s team of Sara Dietzman, Amanda Matluck, Whitney Farber, and Natalie Feingold had to overcome a collision with another team during a hand-off. Bloomfield won the race and 10 points, while Weston had to settle for six points and third place in the event, 0.03 second behind Weaver High School.

“That wasn’t the way we wanted to start the meet,” Medve said.

The highlight of the night was a record-setting pole vault by Weston’s Emily Savage, who cleared 12 feet, seven inches, which is not only a state record but is the eighth best jump in the country this year for indoor girls track.

“I was very relaxed and confident, and the jumps just came for me,” Savage said. “I hope I can keep it going at the upcoming meets.”

Savage will travel to the Armory in New York for the Eastern Championships on Feb. 25h and then the national championships, slated for March 8-10.

Hannah Campos took sixth place in pole vault with a personal best jump of 8’ 6”, while Stephanie Thompson and Emily Castro each jumped eight feet, good enough for seventh and eighth place, respectively.

The 4×800 team of Olivia Watson, Jordan Isaacs, Jane Wall and Alexa Werner also took home the gold with a time of 9:51.21, their best race of the season.

Dietzman went to the wire in the long jump, trading the lead with a girl from Bloomfield and eventually taking second place with a leap of 17’ 1”, more than half a foot better than her previous best this year and one inch short of the Weston High record.

Three freshmen ran in the 1,000 meters. Taking silver was Rhemi Toth, who clocked a time of 3:10.77. Emily Iatesta shaved nearly six seconds off her personal best to take seventh, while Andi Rosenblatt also had a personal best and lowered her time by five seconds to take eighth place in the race.

The sprint medley team of Charlotte Cenatiempo, Matluck, Watson and Toth took second place, good for eight points but considerably behind their top seeded time.

Savage took and Chloe Schapiro each cleared five feet in the high jump, the former taking third based on fewer attempts and the latter getting fourth.

Matluck chalked up a point in the 55 meter dash with a time of 7.60, good enough for sixth.

The 4×400 team of Farber, Feingold, Wall, and Werner, concluded the night with a fourth place finish, good for four points.

“I give a lot of credit to Bloomfield,” Medve said. “To beat a champion you have to be almost perfect, and we were just a little shy of that.”